Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

A couple years ago, I read Dune Messiah and Children of Dune; afterwards, I watched the TV miniseries adaptation of the books. Although I wasn't facinated by Messiah, Children progressed the Dune story and I became really interested in reading the rest of this series. Then I had surgery and forgot all about it. But this review is about the original.

I picked it up a couple days ago because Rebecca was deep into the book she was reading and I wanted something to pass the time while I helped a professor with a video project (there was a lot of down time). But before I get into the book, I need to explain some history.

Growing up, David Lynch's adaptation of the original novel was in my top 5 movies. For a very long time. And although I accepted that there were strong differences between the novel and the film, I recognized them both as being great masterpieces. However, because I loved the movie so much, it was hard to read the book and NOT see the book in light of the movie. It has been many years since I have seen the movie and images have begun to fade from my memory. This made reading the Dune novel a bit interesting because, for the first time, my imagination conjured up the world and the people, instead of possessing the characteristics of the book. It was a bit tricky to do, for me, because I often caught myself seeing Paul Atredies as the Paul from the movie, while in the book Paul was some punk 15 year old kid. And Gurney Halleck was fat in the book, not quite Patrick Stewart. Once my imagination took hold, this book really opened up for me. I was absorbed in it completely, reminding me of my first reading of Hyperion or Gateway (without the unneccesary sex from both books).

For the most part, the book flowed smoothly, up until the last battle when things felt rushed. Unlike Messiah, the original contained the right amount of the choppy and confusing "mind dialogues" which Frank Herbert loved to include in his novels. Simply put: a brilliantly created universe AND an amazing plot.